Rudston – Hull & East Yorkshire History Calendar

March 26th

On 26th March 1646, Hull merchant James Watkinson was fined £400 as a member of the Royalist army (delinquent) in order to recover his goods which had been sequestered by Parliament.

On 26th March 1706, the congregation of Cottingham church gave 4s in a collection for the repair of Beverley Minster.

On 26th March 1740, John Burnham and Ralph Burnsall of Preston bought 2 fields from Benjamin Waive of Hull, half the income from which was used to give to the poor, and half to pay for a schoolmaster to educate poor children in the village.

On 26th March 1827, an evening’s entertainment at Theatre Hedon (presumably in the Town Hall) included a performance of Hamlet, a recitation, and a farce.

On 26th March 1933, Sir Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville Macdonald of the Isles, 13^thbaronet, died at Rudston aged 67 and is buried in the churchyard. (b26.9.1865)

MacDonalds of the Isles

September 29th

On 29th September 1541, King Henry VIII stayed overnight with the Earl of Northumberland at Leconfield.

On 29th September 1638, the Council in the North wrote to the East Riding Commissioner for Sewers at Hedon complaining of the ruinous condition of the banks of the Humber in Drypool.

On 29th September 1829, some postboys were watering the Archbishop of York’s horses at Bar Dyke, Beverley (next to North Bar) after a trip to Rise; one fell in and was saved from drowning by 2 young men. One of the horses dropped dead, whether from exertion or from drinking the dirty water, the Hull Advertiser did not say.

On 29th September 1947, interpreter Sergeant Wadey, and Sgt Cramer were both killed, together with 7 German prisoners of war, when the Army truck they were driving crashed through the railway crossing gates, and stopped on the track in the path of a train heading for Bridlington. 19 other POWs were injured. They were being transported from POW camp 250 at Thorpe Hall, Rudston.

b.agnes level crossing

June 23rd

Ezekiel Rogers window

Ezekiel Rogers window, Rowley church.

On 23rd June 1660, Reverend Ezekiel Rogers died aged 70, in Rowley, Massachusetts, after 22 years as vicar of a new Puritan settlement. The new town was named after Rowley in East Yorkshire, from where he led a group of about 100 Puritans to America in June 1638. Became Rector of Rowley in 1621, aged 31, and served there for 17 years. (b 1590 in Wethersfield, Essex)

On 23rd June 1766, Sara Jenkinson, the infant daughter of Richard Jenkinson of Hutton Cranswick, fell from a little girl’s arms and died within 30 minutes. There was a coroner’s inquest.

On 23rd June 1768, John Courtney, aged 34, gentleman, of Beverley, married Mary Jesse Smelt, aged 24, at St Mary’s, Lowgate. The bride dressed in a white ‘night gown’ and white hat, the groom in a white suit. Only family and servants attended the church and family members dined with them afterwards. The bells of both churches rang for them. They returned to their future home in Beverley in the evening. In his diary, John refers to his future wife at all times as ‘Miss Smelt’.

On 23rd June 1787, the Clerk to the Beverley to Driffield Turnpike Trust wrote to T. Baxter, the owner of Bell Mills, Sunderlandwick, threatening him with prosecution if he allowed anyone to cross his land to avoid paying tolls. 2 months later the Trust asked T. Baxter to lock the gate near his mill, and to prosecute anyone who broke it down.

On 23rd June 1812, Major-General Barnard Foord Bowes of Cowlam was wounded at Battle of Badajoz, but recovered to fight at Salamanca.

On 23rd June 1848, Uckaluk died of measles aboard the Hull ship Truelove, on their way home to Nyadlik, Greenland. She and her husband Memiadluk had visited England to highlight the poor conditions in their homeland. They took part in talks in Manchester and York.

On 23rd June 1853, Captain John (or Thomas) Bowlby set sail for Cumberland Sound in the Arctic with 3 ships, with the aim of forming a settlement there; they took goats and building materials. The surgeon on the trip was William Gedney, who had been on board the Truelove with Captain Parker in 1847.

On 23rd June 1898, Winifred Holtby was born at Rudston. Social reformer, novelist and journalist, she was famous and respected for her work in South Africa and elsewhere. ‘South Riding’ became her most famous novel, published after her death. She is buried in Rudston. (d 29.9.1935)

May 22nd

On 22nd May 1455, Ralph Babthorpe of Osgodby died fighting on the Lancastrian side in the 1^st Battle of St Albans, as did Henry Percy of Leconfield. Thomas Percy and Thomas de Roos also fought on the Lancastrian side. James Pickering of Ellerton fought on the Yorkist side. (It was Richard, 3^rd Duke of York, who led the Yorkists at St Albans, and was the father of Richard III.)

On 22nd May 1649, Charles Bacon of Norrth Ferriby had his estates sequestered, probably as head of a recusant family; apothecary Christopher Bacon probably of the same family, was suspected of being a Royalist agent in 1644.

On 22nd May 1778, diarist James Boswell arrived in Hull from Barton, viewed the newly opened Dock, and left for the tourist resort of Beverley, where he stayed overnight at the Tiger Inn, and met his relatives, the Bosvilles of Thorpe Hall, Rudston.

boswell